Police chief Wayne Torpy will take some more medical leave as he is expected to have surgery to repair a valve in his heart at UNM hospital in Albuquerque next week.

Wayne Torpy

“It is just another piece of my recovery,” Torpy said in his office Wednesday.

About two months ago, Torpy was rushed to the hospital and was there for five weeks, recovering from a couple of serious medical incidents.

Cmdr. Randy Foster was acting chief while Torpy was on leave. That will not be the case this time.

“I will only be out of commission for a couple of days,” Torpy said. “I will be in contact by cell phone.”

Torpy said he will be back in the office in a couple of weeks.

He also was quick to point out, “This is not a relapse. This is a follow-up procedure to my first illness. I feel great. I waited to get this done until now because they could not do all the other procedures at the same time.”

Torpy got back to work a couple of weeks ago and he has been working on budgetary issues.
The police chief said it was always his intent to get back to work, no matter how long it took.

“I’m not a person who believes in sitting around the house doing nothing,” he said. “As long as I could contribute in a valuable way to my job, I was going to come back. I love my job, I love working for the community and the county, and so far it’s been wonderful.”